Young people in conflict with the law

Research reported in 2000 involving interviews with 160 young people in conflict with the law found that 81% characterised their treatment by police as bad, 7% as average and 12% as good, contrasting with the situation once actually in custody where 11.3% said the treatment was bad, 27% average and 61.7% good. The most common forms of police abuse were repeated kicking (120 cases), followed by drenching with hoses (33), suffocation (27), hanging naked from a tree (17), forcing the head into a bucket of water (14), and the use of electric prods (11).

(Jimenez, M. A., 2000, Adolescent Detainees and Minor's Justice, UDP, cited in World Organisation Against Torture et al., 2004, State violence in Chile: An alternative report to the UN Committee Against Torture, OMCT)
OMCT report available at: www.omct.org

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